Cabrini: A Review (Review #2103)

CABRINI

Mother Cabrini is the first American saint in the Roman Catholic Church though not the first American-born saint. That would be Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. Cabrini is an ambitious biopic on this Italian woman who came to the United States to build "an empire of hope". I can laud Cabrini for its noble intentions. I can fault Cabrini for its excessive length. 

We are informed that between 1889 and 1910 there were over two million Italians that had immigrated to America. They were seen as "brown vermin" by the nativist Americans, living in squalor and sewers of New York City. Mother Francesca Cabrini (Cristiana Dell'Anna) has run a successful orphanage in Codogno, Italy. She, however, has a firm faith that her mission must be to create orphanages in China. The Vatican has repeatedly rejected her requests, but nevertheless, she persisted. Finally, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII (Giancarlo Giannini) grants it on condition that she not turn to the East but to the West and go to New York.

Here, Mother Cabrini and her sisters face ferocious opposition. The WASP Anglos detest these people of "Latin persuasion", especially Mayor Gould (John Lithgow). The Archbishop of New York, Archbishop Corrigan (David Morse) is no more helpful albeit not as racist as Gould and City Hall. He cannot stop them, but he forbids them from soliciting funds from Americans. 

The Italian community is not welcoming either, seeing the sisters as useless and an impediment to their criminal enterprises. Still, slowly, Mother Cabrini pushes to get more for her charitable work. Despite her ill health, she wanders into sewers looking for lost children. Eventually, she finds help from unlikely sources. There is the reformed prostitute Vittoria (Romana Maggiora Vergano). There is sympathetic doctor Murphy (Patch Darragh). There are the street urchins Enzo (Liam Campora) and Paolo (Federico Ielapi), whom we met at the beginning when he could find no one to help his dying mother. 

Mother's first efforts to have an orphanage on the Upper West Side is met with overtly racist opposition. Eventually, she and Archbishop Corrigan agree on a Jesuit-owned property on the Hudson River. Mother Cabrini's ambitions grow for a proper hospital. This is met with more opposition and even a forced return to Italy. However, by now Mother has become a skilled political operative. Will she force Mayor Gould's hand? Will New York Times reporter Theodore Calloway (Jeremy Bobb) be a help to Mother's mission? Will Mother Cabrini triumph or will her ill health overtake her?

It is interesting that Cabrini draws attention to a forgotten fact. Today, Italian Americans from Joe DiMaggio and Lee Iacocca to Martin Scorsese and Antonin Scalia are celebrated in U.S. history. It was less than a century ago, however, that Italians coming to America were seen as the "brown people" accused of invading the United States. I do not know if any President accused Italian immigrants of bringing drugs, bringing crime and being rapists (with some assumed to being good people). Interestingly enough, the celebration of Columbus Day was inspired in part by anti-Italian sentiment, to show Italian Americans as loyal citizens. The more things change, I suppose, but I digress. 

Cabrini, in some respects, I think tries to tie in contemporary issues of anti-Latino sentiments to anti-Italian sentiments from the past. When a banker tells Mother that he will not help people of "the Latin persuasion", it is almost impossible to not draw a direct parallel between an Italian then and say, a Mexican now. Near the end of Cabrini, Mother tells Gould that there will be an Italian in his office, not as a cleaner but as his successor. Was she predicting the rise of New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia? Again, whether or not it was Cabrini's attempt in drawing a parallel between Italians then and Hispanics now is conjecture. I can say only for myself that such a suggestion appeared to me.

Cabrini has a strong performance from Dell'Anna as our strong Mother. Dell'Anna makes Mother into someone unafraid to stand up to the most powerful men, sure of her purpose. "Begin the mission and the means will come", Cabrini tells the Pope. She makes Cabrini a woman who will not be denied. Dell'Anna also shows Mother to be someone driven due to a sense of impending death. She is aware that time is very finite, so she wants to do all that she can before God calls her home.

Cabrini has a strong supporting cast. While Lithgow and Morse are spaced throughout the film, they both do strong work as the villainous Mayor and not-so-villainous Archbishop. Morse, late in the film, has a conversation with Cabrini revealing that he is not as hostile as she thinks. Vergano impresses as Vittoria, the hooker who finds the strength to leave the life and help Mother (even if it involved violence). Campora and Ielapi are wonderful as Enzo and Paolo, the street urchins who also shift from hostile to helpers. 

Given his role, I think Giancarlo Giannini filmed all his scenes in one day, but he did what was required. 

That, I think, is probably Cabrini's biggest problem. The film runs a punishing two-and-a-half hours long. It soon becomes a bit of a slog, slowly drowning in its own sense of importance. Cabrini's screenplay by Rod Barr feels so heavy in its seriousness. I can remember only one time when Cabrini laughed (when she and Vittoria, I believe, found water to sustain the orphanage). Apart from that, Cabrini and Mother Cabrini are so serious that one wonders if anyone in this world ever smiled. For much of the film, the characters come across as exactly that: characters. They do not come across as people.

Director Alejandro Monteverde also made a very unfortunate choice in filming so much of Cabrini in this sepia tone. It reminded me of all things, The Simpsons. The eternally sepia world of Cabrini brought to mind when in a flashback, Carl commented that he did not think the Depression was so great and Lenny replied that he found the sepia pretty nice.   

During the film's runtime, my mind began wandering. I thought that perhaps Cabrini would have benefitted from having our story told through Vittoria or Enzo & Paolo's eyes. At the very least, Cabrini would have done better to either be shorter or been a multi-episode miniseries. Right now, the somber and sepia tones that Cabrini has makes it a bit of an endurance test.

The work that Mother Cabrini did is to be commended and praised. Cabrini is a respectable, respectful but somber and self-serious telling of her life. One can respect Mother Cabrini's life and achievements while wondering why her biopic is so dry.

1850-1917

DECISION: C+